Sydney retired at 44 and wrote a blog

I'm retired and I write blogs. Nine blogs. One is about retirement. (I also do other things like volunteer, go out with friends, and travel. For the first 9 years I also painted). I found a really great retirement blog yesterday I'll return to. Here's something she wrote in 2013.

Things you won’t accomplish in retirement:
Sending out Christmas cards,...
Losing five pounds,
Cleaning out your closets,
Reading a ton of books,
Keeping your house and garden in pristine condition,
Watching less TV,
Mastering a new instrument, language, or other field of study,
Becoming Martha Stewart, or
Saving The World.

I do still send real Christmas cards, and I've lost weight twice, 2006 and 2015. I did clean some closets and repack everything about 8 years ago. Also when we remodeled our bathrooms, three closets were reorganized and things tossed.  Three years into retirement I started pitching all the stuff I didn't throw out when I retired. It was amazing to see what I thought was important.  I did join a book club. One of the club's selections actually started my husband on a reading binge--Maisie Dobbs. No garden and not much house cleaning. I do watch more TV--but mostly news and HGTV. Learned blogging. Received as a gift a lot of Martha Stewart cookbooks--and I do more cooking than I did when I worked, but also we go out to eat more. And yes, I am saving the world, one baby at a time at PDHC.

http://retiredsyd.typepad.com/retirement_a_fulltime_job/2013/01/how-to-be-lazy-without-even-trying.html

Christmas card 2015

Leg pain solutions

About two and a half years ago I developed bursitis (inflammation of the bursa) in my right hip. Although it seemed to happen overnight, I recognized it as a pain that I had off and on since childhood. After it seemed to heal in a year, it started in my left hip, probably because so much dependence on it. I did the ice and exercise routine again, but always took a folding cane with me, avoided stairs and any incline if I were walking. Then in June I read several articles on fish oil being an anti-inflammatory, so figuring it couldn't hurt, I tried it. Maybe it's a placebo, but I'll take it and leave the cane at home, because I can now walk miles and even do the stairs in my home without pain (although I would NEVER do stairs for exercise like I used to). No more Advil. Last week I was talking to my daughter about it, and I guess we'd never discussed it. She'd done the same thing, but for auto-immune related problems and she's been able to give up Aleve, and move without pain. She also said her fingernails were strong for the first time in her life, and I looked at mine, and what do you know, mine were too, and I hadn't even noticed.

 Apparently, I have a mild form of peripheral neuropathy--although I haven't really had an exact diagnosis. I have none of the usual indicators--no diabetes, I'm not overweight, and I don't have high blood pressure, kidney disease or thyroid problems. I'm not missing any vitamins, and I'm not an alcoholic. After all the tests and my doctor coming up with nothing, she sent me to a sports doctor (really fancy facility for all the important athletes). I don't recall him saying neuropathy, but I looked up the prescription, gabapentin, and that's what it's used for. I had no relief for 2-3 months, but finally, I can sleep without leg pain waking me up, so I'm crediting gabapentin. There is a side affect I've had to get used to; I feel a little tipsy in the morning, and that goes away by afternoon. In researching this I figure the neuropathy (if that's what it is) may be from falls, which is another underlying cause. I've never broken anything, but I have gone down stairs bumpty bump and fallen off my bike. And of course, my age. It seems a lot of aches and pains come with age.

How healthy do you feel?

. . . the researchers looked at 65 different mortality risk factors as they tracked participants through the later years of their lives. Once the number crunching was finished, the factor that rose to the top was surprisingly simple and straightforward.

The most sensitive measure of longevity was the individual’s own subjective evaluation of how healthy he or she felt. In other words, a person reporting that he or she feels healthy outweighed any other single predictor of a long life, including any medical measures such as cholesterol levels and blood pressure.'

It's hard for someone with diabetic neuropathy or COPD to report "I feel healthy." Unless they lie.  Unless they just haven't been to the doctor in years and don't know better.  Having a positive attitude and a fulfilling life is different.  I have a friend about 80 with a wonderful sense of humor, bright fulfilling volunteer life, and so many ailments she should be in a text book.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/out-the-ooze/201605/the-surprising-factor-can-predict-long-life

Bursitis and Walking Update

Finally, I saw a sunrise. I'm getting 6-7 miles a day in walking at our summer home in Lakeside, Ohio, and mornings are best. All these miles are broken into small segments of one mile or less so I don't risk inflammation.  I use only the flat, east-west streets of Lakeside which indicate where the shore line was about 8-10,000 years ago.  We had a glacier in this area of the U.S. and then that darn climate change and global warming.  It was very hazy today, and promises to be very hot, but those first few moments as the sun pops over the horizon are glorious.

 I've seen several people using hiking poles, and when checking I seek trekking, hiking, walking, shock absorbing, ultralight, women's, cork, rubber, etc. Sure looks better than using a cane. https://www.rei.com/learn/expert-advice/trekking-poles-hiking-staffs.html

One woman I saw with walking poles is getting ready for the 500 mile Camino in Northern Spain where hikers stop at monasteries, villages and churches. She did it several years ago, and is planning another one. She talked about it for a Women's Club program.  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-2159915/Walk-lifetime-Why-epic-Camino-trail-Spain-route-true-happiness.html

Stretching routines

Lately I've noticed some loss of grip strength and have to have my husband open bottles and jars (I think I need to ask the pharmacist for non-child proof containers, because they've made them older adult-proof).  So I turned to Google, but before I got to hand and finger, I came across this nice stretching routines for seniors web site.  It doesn't start out with finger and hand stretches, that is #11, but begins with shoulders and neck, etc., all while sitting down, and instead of a gorgeous 25 year old in shorts and tiny t-shirt, they have an 80-something woman as the model.  The voice over is quiet and pleasant and there's no obnoxious music. Elder Gym also is printable, so after you watch the videos you can print out the instructions.  Yes, you do have to work around some ads, but that's how these useful educational sites recover their costs. He has DVDs for sale, but I think watching the simple videos and then DOING them, would be helpful.

• Stretching techniques for seniors and the elderly exercisers are designed primarily to improve function in older adults.
• There are minimum ranges that we must use for many of our daily activities.
• For example, you need to raise your arm to at least shoulder height to put on a shirt.
• Your knee must bend at least 90 degrees (like an L shape) in order to go up stairs.
• In other words, good stretching techniques for older adults will stress improving what we call the end range.
• That is the farthest point your joint will go when reaching overhead for example.
• So to get  your shirt on you will have to work on getting your arm to raise to at least your shoulder height.

There are also other tips, like breathing and posture, and how to take it up a notch.

Here's the video for the neck stretch.  Each basic exercise has a separate video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNJNjKfjUyk

Here's a list of all the exercises, upper and lower body are separate.

Instructions for calf strengthening are simple--hold on to the back of a chair and raise up on your toes. 

• Calf exercises strengthen the lower body and are important in maintaining balance and walking ability by improving your ability to push off and accelerate as we walk.
• It is vital to keep these muscles working not only every day but several times a day.
• This is because, as I like to say, they are the "heart" of your legs.
• Calf contractions help pump the great volume of blood up from your legs to your upper body and brain.
• No more fainting or getting light headed when standing still when you raise up on your toes a few times during the day.

Spending patterns of older Americans

This will take a little time to read and study, but I suggest it because you may be in the same boat as we: by 2050, when our children are 80+ there will twice as many seniors as today. So the purpose of the study (BLS) is to figure out how do people over 65 spend money (we’re consumer units). 

The first thing you notice is how income, which peaks in the 50s, drops in the 70s (retirement pensions, savings, investments—which is why we need to elect capitalists). I think the food category is high, but that’s because it probably includes eating out—and we sort of tuck that into entertainment (we don't do much for entertainment). Everyone eats out much more than they need to—food is pretty reasonable, but if you’re paying someone to prepare and serve it, not so much. In 2013, Americans spent 5.6 percent of their disposable personal incomes on food at home and 4.3 percent on food away from home.  

I was surprised that housing costs (as percent of income) were as high as the study shows.

Contributions got lumped into “other” so that’s a pretty sloppy category. I know there are all sorts of categories we could reduce, but really don’t have the will. But I just love shopping for clothes at resale stores and getting brand name jeans for $1.00. I didn’t discover them til after I retired. For nice stuff, I just let my daughter do that for Christmas and birthdays.

http://www.bls.gov/opub/btn/volume-5/spending-patterns-of-older-americans.htm

Have you looked at your pension balance today?

Even though the left, particularly Obama, love to blame Bush for the housing bubble bursting in 2007-2008 which was actually a result of years of government interference in the housing market, I'm NOT going to blame Obama for what is happening in China this week which is making mincemeat of my pension funds.

 China's economy has become so powerful, the only protection is for us is to have a president and Congress who are capitalists instead of socialists in heart and policy. Socialists only know how to tax the workers to spread the wealth. That doesn't grow the economy.  The irony is that China got this strong by kicking out its communist economists and liberalizing its capitalists. Right now, China's economy is in free fall.

I just got my TIAA-CREF December account report.  I withdrew (by law it's required after 70.5 years) about $4,000, but my gains in investment were about $8,000, so I ended the month at a higher balance than I started with.  That's how every retiree hopes it will work out.  However, the top .01% of the population lost billions on paper this week, and it is now trickling down to  those of us who saved and scrimped during our working years to have enough to retire.  I socked away 15% every month from my paycheck (maximum allowed) in addition to the required amount for the state pension. My health care comes out of my pension, and that's about 13%.  If all I had was a pension, I'd be in poverty.